Pan - My Favourite Planet People

The Arcadian, goat-footed Pan (Greek, Πᾶν), was the pastoral god of nature, wild places, moutains, woods, shepherds, goatherds, flocks, hunting and rustic music. He was identified with spring, fertility and the generative power of life, and thus also with sex.

His terrible, angry shout caused those who heard it to be seized by great fear and uncontrollable behaviour; the origin of the word panic. He is said to have used this power to help defeat the mythical attack of the Titans on Mount Olympus and the historic Persian invasion of Attica at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC.

According to various myths, Pan's father was either Hermes, Dionysus or Zeus, and his mother a Nymph, either Dryope or Penelope of Mantineia in Arcadia. In later versions of myths, the Nymph Penelope became identified with the wife of Odysseus. None of the older accounts of his parentage appear to explain his appearance as half-man, half-goat. All ancient Greek sources agree that his original home was in Arcadia in the Peloponnese. [1]

"... to the Arcadians Pan is the most ancient and the most honoured of all the gods."

Dionysius of Halicarnassus (circa 60-7 BC), Roman Antiquities, Book 1, chapter 32, section 3. At Bill Thayer's LacusCurtius.

"There is also in Heraea a temple of Pan, as he is native to Arcadia..."

Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 8, chapter 26, section 2. At Perseus Digital Library.

The oldest surviving written evidence for the worship of Pan discovered so far are votive inscriptions to the god on bronze statuettes dedicated by Phauleas and Aineas, as well as a small inscribed marble base and a potsherd, all dated to the sixth century BC, thought to be from a sanctuary of Pan at Neda (Νέδα), on the south slopes of Mount Lykaion (Λύκαιον ὄρος), southwestern Arcadia. Dedications to Hermes have also been found on the site. (see below)

Pan is not mentioned in the earliest surviving works of Greek literature, such as Homer's Iliad or Odyssey, or the three main works attributed to Hesiod, Theogony, Works and Days and Shield of Heracles. One of the "Homeric Hymns" (Ὁμηρικοὶ ὕμνοι, Homerikoì hymnoi) is dedicated To Pan. However, despite their name, the thirty three songs in praise of Greek gods were not written by Homer, and their authors and dates remain unknown. It is thought that individual hymns may may have been written some time between the seventh and fourth centuries BC, some perhaps even later.

"Muse, tell me about Pan, the dear son of Hermes, with his goat's feet and two horns – a lover of merry noise. Through wooded glades he wanders with dancing nymphs who foot it on some sheer cliff's edge, calling upon Pan, the shepherd-god, long-haired, unkempt."

Homeric Hymn 19, to Pan, lines 1-5. At Perseus Digital Library. [2]

His earliest datable literary appearance is a brief mention in Pindar's Pythian Ode 3, written around 474 BC, in which he is praised along with a mother goddess (perhaps Cybele or Rhea).

"But I, for my part, want to offer a prayer to the Mother, the revered goddess whose praises, with those of Pan, girls often sing at night beside my doorway."

Pindar (circa 518-438 BC), Pythian Ode 3, For Hieron of Syracuse Horse Race, lines 78-79. At Perseus Digital Library.

However, the 5th century BC historian Herodotus considered Pan one of the younger gods, and believed that he was introduced to Greece from Egypt along with other deities. He identified the Eqyptian god Khem as Pan.

"Among the Greeks, Heracles, Dionysus, and Pan are held to be the youngest of the gods. But in Egypt, Pan [Khem] is the most ancient of these and is one of the eight gods who are said to be the earliest of all."

Herodotus, Histories, Book 2, chapter 145. At Perseus Digital Library.

Pan's name may derive either from the Greek paein (πάειν, to pasture) or pan (πάν, all), although other theories have suggested a pre-Greek, Indo-European origin.

He was certainly a primitive god and remained so as the biographies and back-stories other Olympian gods were developed and their personalities made more elevated and sophisticated. While other deities associated with agriculture, hunting and rural settings, such as Dionysus, Demeter and Artemis, were taken into Greek cities and worshipped at ever-grander temples, Pan continued to be seen as belonging to the wild, untamed countryside, and his sanctuaries were more humble, often in caves or among rocks (see a rock-cut shrine in Thasos below).

Pan's rough, semi-bestial appearance and character have led some to believe that he and the other daemons and spirits of nature were much older than other gods, perhaps introduced later into Greek religion. Pan, like Silenos, had a role as a tutor to other deities: he is said to have taught Apollo prophecy and introduced Artemis to hunting and given her hunting dogs. On the other hand, this appears at odds with the complicated mythical genealogies which made him a relatively junior member of the Olympian family.

Although described by Pindar as "Lord of Arcadia", he was a minor god in the pan-Hellenic scheme, and was not among the Twelve Great Gods who lived on Olympus. More probably, the Greeks, and later the Romans, continued to need deities who ruled over particular aspects of life and parts of their world - the cities, the tamed and untamed lands, as well as rivers and the sea - and these retained attributes which seemed appropriate to their realms.

He was often worshipped together with Nymphs, female deities associated with water, vegetation and fertility, in the open air, at springs, rivers, in woods, on mountains and in caves. The cult of the Nymphs was also connected with Hermes, Apollo, Dionysus and local river gods such as Acheloos and Baphyras (at Dion, Macedonia, below Mount Olympus).

At Athens there were several important sanctuaries of Pan and the Nymphs, including those on the north and south slopes of the Acropolis, at the foot of the Hill of the Pnyx, near the River Ilissos, at Eleusis and in mountain caves of Parnes, Penteli and Hymettos (Vari). See Athens Acropolis gallery page 4.

In Greek and Roman art Pan is depicted as half-man, half-goat. Goat's horns grow back and close together from the centre of his head, about half way between the forehead and crown. His hair and beard are thick, long and wild, his eyes are widely spaced, his nose often long and flat, and his lips full.

His legs, covered with thick, shaggy hair, end with the cloven hooves of a goat, and he has a goat's tail. He is shown as being shorter than other gods, but taller than mortals, perhaps indicating his relative status. He is usually naked, often with an erect penis, though sometimes wearing or carrying an animal skin cloak.

He holds or plays his syrinx (σύριγξ, pan pipes) made of hollow reeds of various lengths bound together. He also carries a lagobolon (λᾰγωβόλον; Latin, pedum), a short hunting stick, curved like a walking stick at one end, used for throwing at hares [3]. Presumably, if thrown correctly it could stun or even kill a small animal. The curved end would have also made it useful as a shepherd's crook.

Pan is often shown with Nymphs, particularly in works from shrines of Pan and the Nymphs in which his father Hermes also sometimes features. Where the shrines were underground and in caves they were associated with the underworld and death, and Hermes here fufills his role as Hermes Psychopompos (Guide of Souls).

Pan became increasingly assimilated into the myths and cult of Dionysus following the introduction of his shrines in Athens from 490 BC [4]. In numerous artworks he is shown as one of the companions of Dionysus, part of his retinue known as the thiasos. Always shown as smaller than and apparently subserviant to Dionysus, he dances with Satyrs and Silens as the wine god cavorts drunkenly during one of his adventures (see photos on the Dionysus page of the People section).